China to Limit Web Access During Games
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: July 31, 2008
BEIJING — The Chinese government has confirmed what journalists arriving at the lavishly outfitted media center here have suspected: contrary to previous assurances by Olympic and government officials, the Internet will be censored during the upcoming Games.
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: July 31, 2008
BEIJING — The Chinese government has confirmed what journalists arriving at the lavishly outfitted media center here have suspected: contrary to previous assurances by Olympic and government officials, the Internet will be censored during the upcoming Games.
Coverage of the 2008 Beijing Games from every angle — the politics, the arts, the culture and the competition.
The International Olympic Committee quietly agreed to some of the limitations, according to a press official, Kevin Gosper, the Reuters news agency reported. Mr. Gosper told Reuters on Wednesday that he had only just learned of the agreement. Sandrine Tonge, the I.O.C. media relations coordinator, said the organization would press the Chinese authorities to reconsider the limits.
Since the Olympic Village press center opened on Friday, reporters have been unable to access scores of Web pages — among them those that discuss Tibetan succession, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown of the protests in Tiananmen Square and the sites of Amnesty International, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers known for their freewheeling political discourse.
A government spokesman initially suggested the problems originated with the site hosts, but on Wednesday, he acknowledged that journalists would not have unfettered Internet use during the Games, which begin Aug. 8.
“It has been our policy to provide the media with convenient and sufficient access to the Internet,” said Sun Weide, the chief spokesman for the Beijing Olympics organizing committee. “I believe our policy will not affect reporters’ coverage of the Olympic Games.”
In the past, both the Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee have suggested that the 20,000 journalists covering the Games would have full Internet access. As recently as two weeks ago, Jacques Rogge, the International Olympic committee president, proclaimed to Agence France-Presse: “For the first time, foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China. There will be no censorship on the Internet.”
The revelation that politically sensitive Web pages will be off limits to foreign reporters comes at a time of growing skepticism about other government’s commitment to pledges made when it won the right to stage the Games in 2001: that it would improve its record on human rights and provide athletes with clean air.
Despite a litany of measures that include restricting private vehicles and shuttering factories, Beijing’s skyline in recent days has been shrouded in a thick haze, prompting some hang-wringing over whether the government can deliver on its promise of a “blue skies” Olympics.
In recent months, human rights advocates have accused Beijing of stepping up the detention and surveillance of those it fears could disrupt the Games. On Tuesday, President Bush privately met with five Chinese dissidents at the White House to drive home his dissatisfaction with the pace of change. Mr. Bush, who leaves for the opening ceremony in just over a week, also pressed China’s foreign minister to ease political repression.
Concerns about free access to the Internet in Beijing had intensified Tuesday, when Western journalists working at the Main Press Center in Beijing said they could not get to Amnesty International’s Web site to see the group’s critical report on China’s failure to improve its human rights record ahead of the Olympics.
Jonathan Watts, president of The Foreign Correspondents Club of China, said he was disappointed that Beijing had failed to honor its agreement to temporarily remove the elaborate firewall that prevents ordinary Chinese from fully using the Internet. “Obviously if reporters can’t access all the sites they want to see, they can’t do their jobs,” he said. “Unfortunately such restrictions are normal for reporters in China but the Olympics were supposed to be different.”